Death... and me

Nevertheless, Rean was curious about one thing. "You accepted the offer. However, do you really have so much Freezing Star Liquid on you right now? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd keep carrying around."

Opacli shook his head, telling him, "No one here would have that much. I would be impressed if they had a single vial to start with. However, it'll still take another week or so before the selected are sent to the Lost Star Realm's Divine Plane. That's more than enough time."

Rean was surprised to hear that. "How come? Isn't it a contest of speed to see who gathers the markers first?" Of course, he understood that the 'second' plane his group had been talking about until now was called the Lost Star Divine Plane by the top ten powers, so he didn't ask about the name.

Opacli nodded, explaining, "That's not wrong. For that, I would need to go into the second part of this contract, which is to tell you about everything I know about the Divine Plane. However..." Opacli then looked around, watching the other groups look at him. "It would be better if we make things a bit more private."

Rean understood his meaning before calling Kentucky. Opacli then told the second elder and the rest of the disciples of his Croste Clan to gather together. Soon after, their group took flight to leave that place.

"Wait! You can't just tell them the methods. It'll disrupt the balance between the ten powers during the selections," Yuan from the Lanqueas Sect said.

Rean didn't seem to mind, though. "Well, if you don't like it, you can always try to stop us." As soon as he said that, Sally opened her eyes for a moment and looked at Yuan. That only made Yuan feel a large chill on his back. Stop them? Even if Sally didn't kill anyone, he wasn't that stupid to mess with one of the ancient beasts. In fact, no one was.

After Rean's group had left, the remaining groups immediately distanced themselves from each other. After all, one must remember that they all needed to kill people with second stage marks to receive the third. As for joining hands to deal with Rean's group, that wouldn't happen. They simply couldn't trust each other at all.

*Boom, boom, boom...*

As Rean's group flew away, they heard the sound of explosions of Divine Energy coming from the park. Naturally, the groups there began to fight for the second stage marks.

"You don't need to care too much about them," Opacli said. "There were only seven groups present there. Each top ten power brought four groups of five disciples, so there are a lot more groups that didn't appear. They might have been too far away or didn't even notice the phenomenon."

That helped Opacli bring up his next question. "By the way, what caused those rays of light that gathered at the center of the park?"

Rean smiled in response and continued to be the one among their group to talk as always. "That's a little experiment we were doing. We were trying to see if we could use the third level's power to resist the Light Element Wave that would come later."

Opacli didn't truly believe that, but he had no way to confirm whether it was true or not either. "Is that so...?" He decided to leave that aside for the moment. "Anyways, let me continue. I said it would take another week or so for the selected to be sent to the Divine Plane. However, you're right. Speed also counts here. It's just that it doesn't matter for your group anymore. After all, all of you have already gotten your second stage marks to receive the third guardian dragon's recognition."

Opacli could tell that they had already gone far enough from the other groups, so he asked everyone to land on a nearby ruined building. Soon after, he talked a few things with his group before immediately dashing back in the direction of the park. "Sorry. With the battles going on in the park, there's a good chance that my disciples will get a chance to fish in chaotic waters. I sent them back since they haven't gotten their second stage marks yet. I'll also be joining them soon."

Opacli then talked more about the rules. "Anyways, all your group really needs to do right now is to find the next Dragon Beast Pool. However, you probably can guess that the pool is different from a normal pool. The first one was a pool that was supposed to be frozen in ice but wasn't. The second one, on the other hand, was a lava pool. As for the third one, it's a pool filled with Light Element."

"Light Element?" That was quite surprising for Rean's group.

"Yes." Opacli nodded. "In a certain way, the third pools are the easiest to find. After all, they're very eye-catching. But as I mentioned before, without devouring someone else's second stage mark, your own guardian dragon wouldn't even come out of it. It's just that it's obvious to me that you got your marks from the Didatido Sect's disciples, so you're fine."

Rean nodded in response. "I see... and what about the Freezing Star Liquid?"

Opacli didn't forget about it. "Once someone gets the third mark from their guardian beast pools, it becomes useless to kill them. Their marks can't be robbed anymore. With that said, speed is paramount. The faster you get your marks and upgrade them to the third stage, the better. The other groups won't try to attack you anymore since it's a waste of time and energy."

"I believe it'll take around a week or so until we don't have anyone anymore with second stage marks. The ones who had them would either already be dead or would have evolved their marks to the third stage. That's enough time for me to get your Freezing Star Liquid. As for how I'll do that, it's a secret I would rather not talk about if you understand me."

Rean could tell that Opacli had some way to communicate and acquire the Freezing Star Liquid from his clan from outside. It's just he didn't know how, nor did he care as long as he got the liquid. "It's fine. So, how will we do it?"